And here are the planned return flights on the 4th October: KL1798 MUC-AMS KL1057 AMS-BRS
You may have notice that these don't match this report's flight number. I was at Munich's central station wasting a few hours before heading off to the airport when I received a text message from KLM stating that my flight had been cancelled. I couldn't believe it as the outbound flight had run late and I nearly missed my connection in AMS. I therefore didn't think that anything else would go wrong on this trip. Instead of wasting time and money getting to the airport to rearrange my flight I rang KLM. This turned out to be a rather long 45 min wait in a telephone queue waiting to speak to somebody at the call centre. When I finally got through to speak to somebody, I was informed that there were no more available flights to get me back that day (Sunday). This was a little bit annoying as I was due to be at work the next day. The KLM representative then looked for the next available flight back. There was nothing available the next day either. The next available flight was on the Tuesday - two days later. I was told that KLM would reimburse the cost of hotels for the next two days but didn't provide any assistance with this. I was quite shocked that they weren't able to get be back sooner, it's not a remote place nor a far distance to travel.
Here are the rebooked return flight details: KL1796 14:05 MUC-AMS KL1053 16:40 AMS-BRS
The next task was to find somewhere to sleep for the next few nights. Firstly I checked with the hotel I had been staying in over the weekend on the outskirts of Munich towards the airport. They had a room available for the Sunday night but not the Monday. I checked online for available hotels. It seemed nothing was available on the Monday night due to an exposition being held that week. I booked a night in the city for the Sunday and headed back to Oktoberfest to enjoy some more beer and German music. I then decided that since there wasn't anywhere to stay in the city that I would head out into Bavaria and visit the Castle of Neuschwanstein perked on edge of the Alps. I'd always wanted to visit and here was the perfect opportunity with nothing to do and a free hotel. Thanks KLM!
So I arrived back in Munich a few hours before the flight only to discover there was some problem with the usually efficient German train network. Instead of the direct S-Bahn from Munich central station I had to get the U-Bahn to another station where I could then get the the S-Bahn, it was all a bit chaotic, luckily I speak German and I could understand the announcements made, otherwise it would have been more difficult.
I finally arrived at the airport. I was travelling from Terminal 1. The station is located just below the terminal.
The terminal is spit into different sections, I was flying from section D. The sections are all connected on the ground floor via travellators and there are a number of shops and places to eat around this area.
Escalators lead up to the check-in area and large posters display that free wifi is available in the terminals (it was however VERY slow to connect).
I was travelling with only hand luggage and headed straight to the security check. They seemed to be checking everyone quite thoroughly so it took a little longer than usual. Then I entered departures.
In contrast to landside there was only one cafe place here with a large queue as it was lunchtime.
Here's the departures board (sorry for the poor quality).
After passing the time a little bit boarding was announced
The boarding was done the standard way Sky Priority first. The air bridge also gave a view of the plane.
I was greeted onboard and I took my seat. Unfortunately and despite having originally had a window seat, I was assigned a middle seat.
The seat pocket contained the magazine and safety card
After take off the service began.
Nachos as on the outbound flight.
The flight was around 1:30 minutes and arrived into AMS on time.
See more
Verdict
KLM
6.0/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering5.0
Munich - MUC
6.8/10
Efficiency6.0
Access7.0
Services6.0
Cleanliness8.0
Amsterdam - AMS
5.0/10
Efficiency5.0
Access5.0
Services5.0
Cleanliness5.0
Conclusion
After the outbound flight was delayed and I nearly missed the connection to then have my return flight cancelled meant that this trip wasn't one of the best. Calling KLM took a very long time and no help was provided with finding hotels. I have had to put in a refund claim which has been accepted. A pretty poor show in general
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Thanks for posting ! Reading the first paragraph sounds like the exact same scenario that happened to you on your way back from South Africa. Did you felt a bit of déjà-vu ? ;) And the way they handled the situation is ridiculous. They were lucky you had time, money and were able to find an hotel yourself, this could have turned into a nighmare very easily. The onboard product makes me want to cry x) I guess KLM's Nachos are like Air France's Brittany cookies :P Can't wait to fly with them in December !
Oh yes definitely a bit of déjà-vu here, at least in South Africa I had a day's notice and I got a flight a few hours after the scheduled one - no need for extra hotels.
Yes I'm getting sick of the Nachos, the next leg had them too! I look forward to your review on how tasty you find them :P
Yes it's pretty crazy. Even if there weren't spaces from MUC they could have tried from FRA, ZRH, STR or something else.
The money should be on it's way very soon as I received an email from their complaints department. However, they say as it was due to bad weather I can't claim the EU compensation .
Bavaria is beautiful and amazing!! I was curious to see MUC airport from this side. I'm used to LH side, and don't know this other side used by many other airlines.
What a shame--seems like KLM did a very poor job of handling this cancellation. I've been in situations before where a flight was cancelled and I had to wait 2 days for a flight, but that was very special circumstances because I was in the Caribbean and we had experienced a hurricane. I think it is completely unacceptable for KLM not to be able to confirm you a seat from such a major European city like Munich for 2 days! If anything, they should have tried to reprotect you either on another airline or from another city--for example pay for your transportation to STR, BSL, or ZRH top catch a flight to AMS. If would have probably been cheaper than reimbursing a hotel for 2 nights! Regardless of whether the delay was caused by weather or mechanical issues, the agents did not do a very good job of giving you all the possible options to get you home sooner. Thanks for sharing this report!
Yes it wasn't the speediest service back to the UK.
I too can't think why it should take so long to get back from MUC. It might be because my final destination was BRS and very few full airlines fly there, e.g. there aren't any AF flights to BRS so it wasn't possible to be routed via CDG which would probably be their preferred choice after AMS. There are however direct MUC-BRS flights with BMI but I imagine they prefer to book skyteam flights as it doesn't cost them as much!
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10 Comments
Reading the first paragraph sounds like the exact same scenario that happened to you on your way back from South Africa. Did you felt a bit of déjà-vu ? ;)
And the way they handled the situation is ridiculous. They were lucky you had time, money and were able to find an hotel yourself, this could have turned into a nighmare very easily.
The onboard product makes me want to cry x) I guess KLM's Nachos are like Air France's Brittany cookies :P
Can't wait to fly with them in December !
Yes I'm getting sick of the Nachos, the next leg had them too! I look forward to your review on how tasty you find them :P
I hope you got the money back very quickly. If I were you I would add meal costs as well. That's the least they can do.
Don't forget to ask for the EU Compensation fee that KLM has to give you. More information here:
http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm
The money should be on it's way very soon as I received an email from their complaints department. However, they say as it was due to bad weather I can't claim the EU compensation .
That's too bad.
Hope you do get the refund quickly.
Yes, I haven't had much luck flying with KLM recently. I'm hoping my bad luck is now over as I'm flying with them again in just over a month.
Bavaria is beautiful and amazing!!
I was curious to see MUC airport from this side.
I'm used to LH side, and don't know this other side used by many other airlines.
See you
It was also my first time in Terminal 1 too. Due to the separation into A,B,C etc it feels much smaller than terminal 2, but it was perfectly fine
I too can't think why it should take so long to get back from MUC. It might be because my final destination was BRS and very few full airlines fly there, e.g. there aren't any AF flights to BRS so it wasn't possible to be routed via CDG which would probably be their preferred choice after AMS. There are however direct MUC-BRS flights with BMI but I imagine they prefer to book skyteam flights as it doesn't cost them as much!
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